Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Wherein I Caution Against (Or Maybe Promote) Drunk Shopping

Let me tell you a little story... This summer, when I was on vacation (the Toronto part of the vacation), Scott and I explored our neighbourhood "holiday-style". On the very same day we took this lunch (in fact, approximately 10 minutes upon leaving the restaurant), we wandered into Style Garage because there was a cool blanket in the window that caught my eye. FWIW, the blanket was 200 bucks and it was freakin' off-grain?! (Fucking hipsters.)

Scott will not go near a furniture store more frequently than once a decade, so it's a mark of how concerned he was about my mental health - following the Ireland leg of that vacation - that he actually suggested we walk inside.

Once ensconced, however, we decided to sit on all the couches cuz, like, air-conditioning plus mild drunkness. And having sat on all the couches, we found one we liked and 2 minutes later we bought it. Then, as we were buying that, I saw a cool leather chair out of the corner of my eye and, next thing you know, we were buying it too. The SA was, frankly, stunned by all of this cuz he'd spent 20 minutes helping another couple to decide that they couldn't decide on anything (it was their 3rd time looking) and then we spent all the loot and he didn't do more than distractedly say hello when we walked in. Point is, you never know who's gonna pull out the credit card. (And really, staying out of our way is optimal when we're making decisions.)

So the couch needed to be built, which was either going to take 6 weeks or 3 months (or till Christmas - you know, hipsters.) We decided that we'd have the chair delivered at the same time, left empty-handed, buzz fading and promptly forgot about it. Yesterday, a friend asked me if we had our new furniture and I realized I'd not thought about it since early July?! I called Scott - whose name was on the paperwork - to ask him if he'd heard anything, whereupon he cheerfully advised: Yeah, they called a couple of weeks ago to say the order was ready and they took the balance payment. Apparently, the delivery guy was supposed to call me to set up a time but he never did...
In fact, they'd called on September 18, just to clarify. I did ask my husband whether he'd intended to tell me about this but he said he wanted it to be a surprise. I assured him that I was adequately surprised and then he suggested that I look into it. This is how I can tell you that the delivery guy never got notice and the furniture shop didn't follow up and my husband forgot and, really, our couch and chair could be sitting in someone else's house right now and who'd be any the wiser??

On the flip side, when I spoke with Terrence (the delivery guy who was 1 part road-raging on someone and 2-parts scared of me), he told me that the only time he could deliver it would be Friday afternoon. Um, ok. An hour earlier I'd all but forgotten I had a new couch and chair. And delivery before Thanksgiving (when I'm having guests) is pretty sweet.

The only concern I had - and I'm underplaying how concerned I was because, really, I only go into a furniture store once every half-decade so I'm not exactly inspired by this sort of change - is that I have a leather chair (I never liked) and another couch in the back room (the room that's gonna be demolished and recreated, along with a room above it) that I've got to divest myself of by Friday.

Did I mention that everything's happening here, all the time?

So Scott called his friend, who just moved into his first condo, and offered him the leather chair. Sure, I could get a few hundred bucks for it - it's in perfect shape - but I can't be bothered. Apparently Terrence will bring it to this friend for an extra 80 bucks so, somehow, I'm giving Scott's friend a chair and paying to have it delivered to him. Well played, friend.

I'm going old-school with the couch - which is 20 years old and could use recovering - or at least a good wash. It's going on the front walk but I'll up the ante by doing a curbside notification on Craigslist. You know: There will be a free couch on a front walk at @ noon on Friday kind of thing. (I won't put the address of course - peeps need to email me for extra deets!) I'm so hopeful that this will be taken by a happy person who needs it approximately 3 minutes after it leaves my front door.

The hilarity of this situation is that neither Scott nor I (who shared a notably delicious bottle of wine prior to walking into Style Garage) can remember what either the couch or the chair look like*. We know the couch is a deep shade of blue velvet and we think the chair is white. Lord. Who buys a white leather chair? (Note: I already own one that lives upstairs.) So it's going to be an exciting Friday.

Today's Questions: Have you ever bought something big ticket and forgotten about it? Do you think we're insane?

*Yeah, I do realize I can look up deets on the receipt but what's the fun in that??

19 comments:

This is why I track all of my spending religiously in a spreadsheet... my spending is mostly on clothes (which necessitates a lot of buy/return plus waiting on both ends) but I would definitely forget about things if I didn't record them as pending.

On the other hand, I just drank out of someone else's abandoned water bottle on the coffee table at work. Eek. My throat has been feeling scratchy today so I hope it doesn't get worse from introduction of unknown germs.

"...the blanket was 200 bucks and it was freakin' off-grain?! (Fucking hipsters.)...staying out of our way is optimal when we're making decisions...I spoke with Terrence (the delivery guy who was 1 part road-raging on someone and 2-parts scared of me)...Do you think we're insane?"

Out of all the blogs I read, yours is the one that makes me laugh out loud the most. While I favor your bra reviews, most of your wide ranging posts are amusing and informative. Who cares if you're insane?

Feel Free to Email Me At

Here am I...

But Enough About Me...

Form/Function. Line/Curve. Safe/Risk. Art/Craft. Body/Mind.
Fashion intersects these. It's how we express what is popular in what is personal. It's where intellect debates sex; where soft and hard duke it out. So much mystery underpins beautiful things. So much confidence rests upon them. Discuss.